About Us

Internationals back to face Reds

Melbourne Victory coach Ange Postecoglou said his three internationals will all return for Friday night's clash with Adelaide United as the side looks to turn its fortunes around.

Melbourne Victory coach Ange Postecoglou said his three internationals will all return for Friday night's clash with Adelaide United as the side looks to turn its fortunes around.

Striker Archie Thompson and defender Mark Milligan were both part of the Australian squad that defeated Iraq in Qatar in a World Cup qualifier where Thompson scored a dramatic late winner for the Socceroos.

Milligan did not play in the game, however, while Rojas played 69 minutes for the New Zealand side that defeated Tahiti 3-0 in their own qualifying match.

The trio all missed last weekend's 5-0 loss to Brisbane, but despite some long flights, Postecoglou expects all three to start as the coach swings the changes in response to that defeat.

"They fly at the right end of the plane mate," Postecoglou said.

"So I assume they got pampered up there.

"To be fair to both of them and Marco Rojas, right from the outset they've put their hand up, and they're not making any excuses, they want to play.

"They understand the position the clubs in and when you're in this sort of position it's all hands on deck and they're very keen to get out there tomorrow night and help rectify our start to the season."

Postecoglou said the three internationals would automatically come into the team as Spase Dilevski, Andrew Nabbout (groin) and Danny Allsopp (hamstring) will all miss the clash with old rivals Adelaide at Etihad Stadium.

Postecoglou said there may be a further two changes, the coach saying goalkeeper Lawrence Thomas' position may be reviewed as Tando Velaphi returns to full fitness.

"With Tando, he missed a whole year of football last year and any player that misses 12 months of football regardless of (which) sport, takes a while to get back in the swing of things," Postecoglou said.

"I wasn't picking Lawrence because of any other reason than at the time, in training terms, Lawrence was a bit ahead of him.

"But he's slowly getting back to where we want him to be, Tando, and he's up there putting his hand up for selection so we'll see how he goes."

Although personnel changes will certainly help Victory's cause against the unbeaten Reds, Postecoglou expects his players to lift in all areas after reading the riot act to them at the post-match review earlier this week.

"That result and the performance wasn't acceptable under any circumstances so we've got to cop that," Postecoglou said.

"(But) I'm here," he added. "I'm here and I'm not going anywhere and I'm not changing and we'll get it right.

"We're certainly, after two games, not going to throw away everything we've worked pretty hard on.

"We're pretty determined as a football club to get it right and we will do it."